


in your orbit

by sunpatiensvigorous (bloominsummer)



Category: K-pop, SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Fluff, HowoonderlandFicFest, M/M, Quarantine Romance as a Trope, Wear Your Masks and Wash Your Hands Please, hwff, seriously it's fluff from this user can you believe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-22
Updated: 2020-11-22
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:35:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27656234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bloominsummer/pseuds/sunpatiensvigorous
Summary: Here’s the thing about being stuck in an apartment under quarantine orders with an infatuated Yoon Jeonghan as company: by the third Monday, anyone would start becoming a little reckless. Lee Jihoon is no exception to the rule.
Relationships: Kwon Soonyoung | Hoshi/Lee Jihoon | Woozi
Comments: 16
Kudos: 167
Collections: HOWOOnderland Fic Fest





	in your orbit

**Author's Note:**

> waaaa as I type this, I realise that the last soonhoon-centric we've seen from me is coincidentally also another birthday piece though for soonyoung :] it's fun writing them again. 
> 
> this fic is created as part of the HOWOOnderland Fic Fest, under prompt number #35: “Due to boredom, Soonyoung and Jihoon meet up in online (Omegle/Tinder etc) cue a quarantine love story.” 
> 
> clickety [clickity](https://twitter.com/blminsmmr/status/1330482503069560832) click

Jihoon spent approximately 2 hours, 35 minutes and 22 seconds deliberating before he gave into temptation and created a profile on Tinder. During the so-called deliberation period, he consumed three glasses of beer with 9% alcohol content and some soju, too. The beers he bought specifically for this occasion, but the soju is leftover from the last gathering he’d had over at his place prior to the entire city going on lockdown.

Oh, how far the mighty has fallen. In the late hours of the night, Lee Jihoon found that not only was he incredibly touch-starved, he was also affection-starved, though he’d much rather bite his tongue off than admit that the latter is true.

While mildly intoxicated, Jihoon filled in personal details and chose _everyone_ when they asked him for his preferences. The subsequent page had him tapping on _anime_ , _cat lover,_ and _working out_ as his passions—a range he deemed sufficiently wide to summarise his personality. Then they prompted him to arrange his display pictures and Jihoon had to scroll through his group chats to find decent ones that Seungkwan took of him.

The alcohol he drank for liquid courage definitely didn’t help from here on, because it became a complete blur to Jihoon whether he had swiped right or left, up or down. If he concentrated hard enough he could hear his phone pinging continuously, but the sounds felt like they had come from miles away and his eyes were getting heavier and heavier by each second.

Eventually, he fell asleep on the couch.

Jihoon wakes up the next morning with an awful crick in his neck. From where Jeonghan is standing by the kitchen counter, a bowl of breakfast oatmeal held in hand, his roommate smiles knowingly at him. Him and the phone on his chest, the screen somehow still lighted up to maximum brightness despite his battery flashing red.

Jihoon stares at it, completely horrified at what he’s done and the fact that Jeonghan’s caught him right in the act.

A bunch of match notifications stare back right at him.

🌌 ⭐ 🌌 ⭐ 🌌

Despite Jeonghan’s insistence that he won’t be passing any kind of judgement over Jihoon’s choice to venture into the world of online dating, the younger knows him all too well to fully believe in that claim. The second he’s disappeared into the comfort of his room, Jeonghan must’ve pulled out his phone and texted Seungcheol with all the juicy details.

He can practically see the message Jeonghan would send.

 _Babe, you wouldn’t believe! I think we’ve finally pushed Jihoonie to the breaking point with our lovesick acts that he’s gone and made himself a Tinder account to find his own prince charming_.

Okay, maybe not exactly that, but definitely something within the same vein.

It’s not like Jihoon can fully blame Jeonghan. He’d have done the same if he ever caught any of his friends so awfully bested by the circumstances they start seeking intimacy from strangers on the internet. Strangers they don't even have the chance of meeting in the foreseeable future.

Oh, God, what if his friends stumble across his profile on the app? With how adamant Jihoon’s been about staying off those things and sticking to the traditional way of pursuing his potential suitors, and now… they’d _know_ exactly how lonely he is. And they can’t know that.

 _No one_ can.

Hurriedly, Jihoon scrambles for his phone, yanking off the charger from its port to delete his profile before the worst thing imaginable can happen.

Except, when Jihoon opens the application, the first he sees hook his attention like a helpless trout on a line. Jihoon brings his phone closer to his face to inspect it, _him_ , better. A mop of fluffy red hair adorned the guy’s head like a crown of flowers. No, not exactly fiery red, more the colour of a good sangria. He’s looking slightly to the left, allowing the sharpness of his jawline to be paraded in a boastful way.

Black outer, black shirt.

Handsome.

It says here that he’s matched with Jihoon and has sent him some messages. Before he opens the chat, Jihoon navigates to the guy’s profile and with every subsequent swipe of his thumb, he becomes more and more enraptured. No matter what hair colour this man sports in the picture, he wears it with steadfast confidence—as though each one is the one God’s bestowed upon him.

There's a couple of photos of him with his friends next. The intention here is likely to help sell his claim of _sociable and looking for fun_ as his profile states. Which, Jihoon must admit, is quite an effective tactic.

The fish is caught hook, line, and sinker, when the last picture is one of him— _Soonyoung,_ the profile says—in black and white, what seemed to be golden locks falling in disarray over his forehead, his face tilted up and eyelids accentuated with a brush of eyeshadow. If this picture wasn’t drained out of its hues, Jihoon might think it was an oil painting from the Renaissance era.

He opens the chat.

* * *

**Chat Room**

* * *

**Soonyoung:** hi!  
**Soonyoung:** i think i know you from somewhere

He closes the chat again.

Does he really want to do this?

Yes, Soonyoung is attractive. Yes, Jihoon is very much attracted to him from what he’s seen. The line just now, though... it's downright abysmal. True, he’s not in it for the _romance_ per se, but it’s 2020 and Soonyoung still deems that particular form of flirtation appropriate.

Not wanting to make a big decision in a haste, Jihoon exits the application and puts his phone in airplane mode for the entire day. He can deal with this once his classes are over.

🌌 ⭐ 🌌 ⭐ 🌌

To no one's surprise, the back-to-back Zoom meetings kicked his ass and simultaneously killed his spirits while they’re at it. Jihoon already has a hard time concentrating in offline classes before this whole mess began, and now he has to deal with additional distraction in the form of open Youtube tabs.

Jihoon escapes to his room immediately after dinner ends, in hopes of saving himself from an embarrassing conversation with Jeonghan about what happened this morning. As soon as he turns his phone back on, notifications start flooding his screen. Most of them are from his friends, one is a missed call from his mother, and again, Tinder matches and likes alerts.

He buries himself underneath his weighted blanket and opens Soonyoung’s chat again. He hesitates, merely staring at it for a good minute or two, before he concludes that he’s got nothing much to lose anyway.

* * *

**Chat Room**

* * *

**Soonyoung:** hi!  
**Soonyoung:** i think i know you from somewhere

 **You:** Really? ‘I think I know you from somewhere’?  
**You:** Does that line usually work for you? Or ever?

 **Soonyoung:** you tell me ;)

 **You:** No wonder you’re on Tinder, then

 **Soonyoung:** hey!! :< so mean  
**Soonyoung:** i was serious though  
**Soonyoung:** i’m sure i’ve seen you around before…

 **You:** Now that you said it, you look familiar too  
**You:** You go to Hansung?

 **Soonyoung:** yeah!  
**Soonyoung:** you too?

 **You:** Yeah  
**You:** I think one of the guys in your third picture is a friend of my friend  
**You:** Pink polo

 **Soonyoung:** oh, mingyu?

 **You:** Is Mingyu unfairly tall and does he talk a little too fast every single time?

 **Soonyoung:** well…  
**Soonyoung:** yes

 **You:** I guess so, then  
**You:** I only saw him once and I was kind of tipsy, so I can’t be 100% sure  
**You:** My friend’s name is Seokmin

 **Soonyoung:** oh cool! then you’re probably right about mingyu  
**Soonyoung:** i’ve hung out with seokminnie a couple of times, and he’s somehow always grilling meat for me  
**Soonyoung:** he’s really good at it though

 **You** : I know, pretty sure he has a gift for it

 **Soonyoung:** right~  
**Soonyoung:** so… jihoon. online classes suck, huh?

 **You:** Seriously?  
**You:** That’s even worse than the first pick-up line

 **Soonyoung:** that’s because it wasn’t meant to be one!  
**Soonyoung:** i was genuinely trying to make conversation!  
**Soonyoung:** you won’t stand a chance if i was actually trying

 **You:** Oh, is that so?  
**You:** Shall we see about that?

🌌 ⭐ 🌌 ⭐ 🌌

Out of a very suspicious Seokmin, Jihoon managed to wrestle out (read: bribed with the promise of an all-you-can-eat barbecue outing, all expenses paid) the confirmation that the Soonyoung they’re both acquainted with is one and the same. After Jihoon’s made sure that Soonyoung isn’t some kind of psychopath assuming another person’s identity to lure in his victims, he offered Soonyoung his phone number.

He did it for ease of communication, of course, though in truth it was to allow Jihoon to hide his Tinder profile from over-the-top friendly strangers and obnoxious friends alike. A temporary deactivation for now, in case this thing with Soonyoung falls apart on its head.

Except for being part of the same social circle, it seemed that the two of them are nothing alike. Their interests couldn’t clash more, and when Soonyoung suggested playing a game of _this_ or _that_ to allow them to get to know each other better, not a single one of their answers matched. Soonyoung gave him about 40 questions before he admitted utter defeat in his pursuit of finding similarities between them.

The more the days bleeds into weeks and the weeks drag into a couple of long, long months of confinement, there are two things Jihoon becomes more sure of.

Number one: some people are daredevil fools for protesting the lockdown regulations by doing things that will only ensure its indefinite extension.

Number two: the routine he had naturally established with Soonyoung over time, one of them texting back and forth with the occasional pre-bedtime phone call, is the farthest thing from a convoluted form of foreplay.

If Soonyoung has any intentions of escalating the terms of their fellowship, Jihoon thinks he would’ve done so by now. Frustratingly, there has been nothing more to his flirtations than harmless banter. True enough, Jihooon could always be the one to bring up the topic in their conversation if he wanted to, but he feels sated enough as it is.

Gone is the prospect of giving Yoon Jeonghan the taste of his own bitter medicine, for now. The companionship that Jihoon receives in lieu of vengeance, though? It's more than enough to quell his thirst for retribution.

There’s never a dull day with Soonyoung. Entering the second month, Jihoon’s given up on predicting the kind of wake-up text he’d receive. It can range from a random food fact, to an old video of Soonyoung dancing to SHINee back in middle school, to a self-made virtual background that would make Jihoon look like he’s wearing a tiger headband if he positions himself correctly. 

It’s completely awful.

He uses it once to attend a tutorial class, if only to appreciate Soonyoung’s effort. When Jihoon sends the resulting screen capture his way, Soonyoung returns it with a fifteen seconds voice note consisting solely of his delighted giggles, and Jihoon’s heart couldn’t help but grow warm at the sound, how genuine it is. The fickle muscle even skips a small beat near the end of the recording, when Soonyoung’s giggles subside only to be replaced with a soft, breathy admission of, _you look so cute, jihoon_.

Maybe Jihoon replays the voice note a good five times before he closes his eyes that night. Maybe he spends the precious minutes before sleep takes him under wondering how good it would be if he could witness how happiness looks on Soonyoung in person—preferably sooner rather than later. Maybe Jihoon has such a good sleep that for once he wakes up before his first alarm rings.

Maybe, all of the above is true—it’s still no one’s business but his.

Jihoon starts his day by sending a _don’t forget to have breakfast and do your best today_ text.

No need to question who the recipient is at this point.

Even Jeonghan’s smug smiles and furtive glances at him as Jihoon begins his daily banter with Soonyoung over french toast and a cup of coffee can’t cast a cloud over his parade.

* * *

**Soonyoung**

* * *

> oh also i dreamt of you wearing an actual tiger headband last night  
> it was a good dream :)  
> maybe you’ll let me put one on you once this pandemic is over?

He can’t pinpoint exactly what is it in these messages that has him smiling so wide that his cheeks begin to ache, atrophied facial muscles burning in protest, forcefully wakened from their period of disuse.

It could be the underlying acknowledgement that Soonyoung is as affected by Jihoon as he is affected by him. Or more likely, it’s the subtle hope painted in between the lines of Soonyoung’s admission and question. One that conveys Soonyoung’s expectation of a live performance to their coquetry.

The Sun shines brightly outside the window, Old world sparrows chirping exultantly in welcome of a new beginning, and Lee Jihoon is suddenly not so lonesome anymore.

🌌 ⭐ 🌌 ⭐ 🌌

* * *

**Soonyoung**

* * *

It’s raining cats and dogs outside <  
Makes me crave chicken soup <  
Like the one my mom makes <

> then make some?

Forgot to buy chicken on the last grocery run <  
All hope is lost <

> you are very dramatic for a little man

Do you want to die? <  
Who exactly are you calling little? <

> why don’t you have the chicken delivered?

I can’t be bothered <  
It’s too much of an inconvenience <  
I’ll just make ramen and eat it with the kimchi from yesterday <

> jihoonie, you just wanna complain!!  
> am i right?

Well look at that <  
You speak my language so well now <  
_Read 10:45 PM_

🌌 ⭐ 🌌 ⭐ 🌌

“You have a delivery,” Jeonghan calls out to him as he enters through the door.

From where he’s sitting on the couch with a blanket covering his lap, Jihoon casts a cursory glance in his roommate’s direction and frowns. He doesn’t remember ordering anything online. Unless, of course, his sleep-addled brain has somehow managed to make another impulsive decision on his behalf.

Oh, shit. Fingers crossed that he didn’t purchase a sex toy of some sorts.

First the Tinder situation and now this? Jeonghan would _never_ let him hear the end of it. Seungcheol harrassed Jihoon enough already, always making a point of asking Jeonghan to hand his phone over to Jihoon when they’re Facetiming. All that effort only to cheekily ask Jihoon how things are going with Soonyoung.

Jihoon would roll his eyes and answer him as politely as he could, thanking his lucky stars that Seungcheol is older than him by a year. If that wasn’t the case, Jihoon would be in jail for manslaughter and Jeonghan would have a funeral to arrange on top of his academic workload.

But judging from the packaging, the aforementioned delivery appears to be food. Good, that means he has nothing much to worry about.

“Left at the front desk.” Jeonghan sets the white plastic bag in front of him. “I tried not to look—” what a blatant lie that was coming from the nosiest person Jihoon’s ever had the pleasure to know, “—but the note is pretty huge. It’s hard to miss.”

Jihoon is about to question the content of the bag when Jeonghan asks him, “Do you want a bowl with that?”

A particular suspicion arises within Jihoon upon hearing Jeonghan’s question. Soonyoung knows his address, they’ve talked about how it must be cosmic power that didn’t let them meet properly before, considering how they hang out with the same people and live barely ten minutes from each other. Soonyoung knows his address, and he knows Jihoon had wanted to eat chicken soup.

His intuition is confirmed when he pulls the note out of the bag and sees, written in barely legible penmanship:

_might not be half as good as your mom’s, but i hope you like it.  
\- ksy._

There’s a drawing of a tiger next to the signature, crafted with twice as much care as the words were. He can’t help but smile. At Soonyoung, at the sweetness of the gesture, at the slanted eyes of the tiger leaving him no room to mistake who it’s supposed to represent. Jihoon even smiles at the container once he pulls it out of the bag.

“Should I leave you two alone?” Jeonghan sets a bowl down on the table. “Feel like I’m intruding or something.” He bends down to get a whiff of the soup once Jihoon’s opened the cover of the Tupperware. “Oh, it smells pretty nice.”

“Please go shower,” Jihoon tells him instead of acknowledging Jeonghan’s remarks, “then we can share this for dinner.”

Jeonghan cocks an eyebrow at him. “Are you sure?”

“Unless you prefer cooking your own meal.”

“I mean,” he clarifies with a teasing lilt, “are you sure you wouldn’t finish the entire thing while I’m gone?”

“Stop.” Lifting his index finger, Jihoon points in the direction of the bathroom. “Go.”

His hyung laughs, but the gesture is far more affectionate than it is mocking. With both hands raised in the air in surrender, Jeonghan walks backwards toward the bathroom, snatching his towel from their small clothesline as he goes.

“Alright, alright.”

On principle, Jihoon hates to admit that Jeonghan is right, though he most often is. It’s hard not to dig in straight away, so Jihoon pulls out his phone to take a picture and send it to Soonyoung.

* * *

**Soonyoung**

* * *

_You sent a picture_. <  
You didn’t have to… <

> i was wondering when you’d get it  
> wanted to  
> did you like it? :D

Haven’t tried yet, waiting for Jeonghan-hyung <  
But I’m sure it’s good <  
How did you know my unit number? <

> i have my sources~  
> hopefully it won’t give you food poisoning  
> that’d be rather awful

Don’t worry <  
If I need you to take responsibility <  
I know where to find you <

> why are you so scary!!!

Thank you, Soonyoung <

> you’re welcome :)

🌌 ⭐ 🌌 ⭐ 🌌

Having video calls prove to be harder than Jihoon originally thought, because Soonyoung is a _dinosaur_ when it comes to technology. A dinosaur by all definitions of the word and Jihoon means it in the nicest way possible.

Their first call ended rather abruptly because Soonyoung mistook the disconnect button for the camera flip option. The second one had them reading sentences off of each other’s mouth for more than a minute before Soonyoung realised that his Bluetooth earphone had been connected to his phone the entire time, and that was why they couldn’t hear each other properly. The third one was okay, though.

Alright. Maybe _okay_ is an extreme understatement.

The night of their first official Zoom call, Jihoon made the trip to dreamland with Soonyoung’s mellifluous voice singing him a lullaby. It was probably the most blissful rest he’s had since quarantine started, even if he had to wake up to low-quality screenshots of him sleeping circulating among his friends, reaching as far as Seokmin.

It’s safe to say Seokmin is no longer curious as to why Jihoon was asking about Soonyoung before.

As a self-reward for completing his mid-semester exams, Jihoon pops open a bottle of beer and sits in front of his study desk, watching Soonyoung squint at his study notes through his screen. His brows are furrowed, full lips jutted out in a kissable pout as he tries to understand his own handwriting. Soonyoung’s hair is the colour of midnight, stark against his pale skin, having been unkissed by the Sun for so long.

He’s so endearing like this. There’s absolutely no reason for them to be on a call right now, save for Soonyoung’s stubbornness. Jihoon would understand if Soonyoung wants to focus on his review, but Soonyoung insisted on taking part in Jihoon’s celebration even though he still has one last exam to go.

“Your Tinder pictures,” Jihoon begins carefully, finger tracing the mouth of his bottle, “they’re a bit misleading, you know.”

Soonyoung freezes for a moment and Jihoon almost thought it’s their connection, until he hears a soft, “Oh.”

He lifts his face from his notes to look at Jihoon, trying his best to school his disheartened expression to one of nonchalance. Jihoon immediately regrets all of his life choices.

“Not like that,” he rectifies quickly. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

“Then what?”

The wild uncertainty in Soonyoung’s eyes, evident even through the missing pixels—Jihoon wants to rid him of it right away. He sets his beer aside and moves closer to the camera, running his fingers through his hair.

“I like you.”

“W-what?”

The stutter is, once again, not a product of poor connection.

“Just—before I explain myself, I think you need to understand that first.”

“Okay,” Soonyoung nods, glancing away from Jihoon before shyly meeting his glance again. “Okay. I understand.”

“I wasn’t looking for this. Us,” he gestures to himself and then Soonyoung. “You.”

His notes now fully abandoned, Soonyoung’s mechanical pencil has also slipped out of his grasp, disappearing at the edge of the screen. Jihoon holds his undivided attention—and how he loves to be the receiving end of it.

“What were you looking for?”

“Someone to have a lot of phone sex with,” Jihoon answers honestly and Soonyoung sputters on the other end. He grins a little at Soonyoung’s reaction. “I just wanted to get back on Jeonghan-hyung.”

“Ouch,” says Soonyoung, showing sympathy for Jihoon’s cause, slightly questionable as it was. “I suppose quarantine sucks big time in that aspect. Did you overhear him getting it on through the phone often?”

“I wish,” Jihoon sighs dramatically. “He puts Seungcheol-hyung on speaker whenever he calls him, which is pretty much all the time because he misses him. I have to listen to them say _I love you_ to each other like clockwork.”

Soonyoung tilts his head to the right, curious. “And how does your form of revenge fit into all this, exactly?”

“Everyone has their own poison,” he shrugs, leaning back against his seat once Soonyoung’s smile has returned to grace his wonderful features. “I’d much rather hear him moan then talk in baby voice to his partner. Maybe I’m allergic to romance.”

A short silence, followed by Soonyoung's pointed snort.

“What?”

“Mr Allergic to Romance,” he cuts off a bit here, Jihoon’s Wi-Fi choosing this very moment to start acting up, “just made sure I know he likes me before I have the chance to misinterpret his explanation about the circumstances of our relationship.”

“Shut up,” Jihoon huffs in protest. “There are exceptions.” Soonyoung smiles at him, gaze as gentle as a first kiss. “Well, one exception.”

The smile grows blindingly bright, so Jihoon clears his throat before he can do something stupid like ask if he can come over to Soonyoung’s. It’s already well past the city's curfew.

“So, as I said, a bit misleading. I expected a bunch of risqué exchanges, but I’m glad I got you instead.”

“I honestly don’t think you’re allergic to romance,” Soonyoung tells him, licking his lips in slow motion.

At this point, it can either be Jihoon’s connection or his head producing this effect. He can't differentiate anymore.

“Uh, yeah," continues Soonyoung. "About the pictures, Mingyu chose them for me because he didn’t believe in my judgment or whatever. Joke’s on him, I guess. I swiped right on you, didn’t I?”

“You did.”

“Besides,” Soonyoung’s voice drops one octave lower and Jihoon feels his arousal stirring low in his belly, “if you wanted to have video sex, you could’ve just asked.”

He gulps thickly. “Yeah?”

Before he answers, Soonyoung closes his study notes and tidies up his workspace, hanging Jihoon in the air with on a thin thread of anticipation. Jihoon is five seconds away from spontaneous combustion when Soonyoung acknowledges his presence once again, eyes raking over Jihoon’s features in an appreciative manner.

“I think it’s best if you get comfortable on your bed for this.”

That one sentence ends in Jihoon panting harshly into his pillow barely fifteen minutes later, sheet slightly damp with his sweat and hair sticking to his forehead for the same reason. He came from Soonyoung’s _command._ A low directive of _let go for me, Jihoonie_ had him spilling white-hot ribbons all over himself.

It’s only when Jihoon tries to discreetly do his walk of shame to the laundry room to wash his pants and bedsheets does he realise the major plot hole of tonight's story. Jeonghan isn't even awake to bear witness to what happened just now.

So much for his revenge plan.

 _Who cares_ , Jihoon thinks idly, still basking in his post-orgasmic glow, _I still won big time_.

When he returns to his room, Soonyoung’s sent him a picture. No companion text message to go with it, just the picture. The brunet is sitting on his bed, back against the headboard. In the dimmed background lighting, Jihoon can just make out the flush on his face, which is tilted slightly upward so that he’s looking down at the camera.

At _Jihoon_.

It reminds him of the black and white picture that led Jihoon to his downfall, except his time Soonyoung is missing a shirt to cover his upper half. Jihoon wishes he could lick and bite at the dip of Soonyoung's throat as much as he pleases.

Jihoon reciprocates Soonyoung’s efforts. He doesn’t show his face in the picture, only his hand disappearing down the waistband of his fresh sweatpants.

* * *

**Soonyoungie**

* * *

_You sent a picture_.  
Had to change because of you <  
Good night, Soonyoungie <

🌌 ⭐ 🌌 ⭐ 🌌

“Hey,” Jeonghan nudges Jihoon with the heel of his foot. “I have good news.”

Jihoon looks up from his laptop and shoots Jeonghan a questioning look. “What?”

“As of today, restaurants all around the city are still closed for dine-ins, they only do takeaways. Parks are still exclusively for exercise, one hour a day per person. Cinemas are practically an extinguished hope at this point.”

Seriously, that was such a depressing summary of their current situation. Not that anything Jeonghan just said isn’t true, but Jihoon could’ve gone about his day without the reminder that both the present and the near future is still looking bleak for him.

“How’s any of that good news?”

“The good news is,” Jeonghan leans forward, voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper, “Seungcheol’s building allows visitors now.”

So Jeonghan means good news for himself.

“Okay?”

“And so does ours,” he says again, looking triumphant when Jihoon’s lips part in realisation.

Nothing is standing in the way of him inviting Soonyoung over to his humble haven anymore.

 _Oh_.

🌌 ⭐ 🌌 ⭐ 🌌

Jeonghan's kind enough to excuse himself from the apartment when Soonyoung's due for a visit. Jihoon's glad to be rid of him, but he wishes he'd ask Jeonghan how many cloves of garlic he has to use for the stew. He intends to return Soonyoung's kindness for the chicken soup, but at this rate, the only thing Jihoon will be giving him is a stomachache. He’s only halfway through the meal preparations when he hears a knock on the door and opens it to reveal Soonyoung on the other side.

“I can come back later,” is the first sentence Soonyoung says, followed by, “I know I’m, uh, early.”

Jihoon rolls his eyes and pulls him in by the front of his shirt. He echoes Soonyoung’s sentiment perfectly, the impatience behind his extreme punctuality. Now that he’s finally got Soonyoung in his space, why would he ever want to send him away?

Afraid that he’ll burn the entire building down if he starts kissing Soonyoung right away, Jihoon decides to keep the heavy action for later. They navigate around the small kitchen carefully to minimise the risk of injury, but not too careful that they don’t keep touching every so often. A brush of a hand on the small of Jihoon’s back, Soonyoung’s palm covering Jihoon's elbow when he needs to step around him, soft hair tickling the side of Jihoon’s neck when he leans in for a taste of the stew.

Dinner drags on for a while, mostly because they’re too busy looking at each other and smiling before the eye contact gets too much that one of them breaks away. Rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat. Jihoon feels like a giddy teen all over again and he’s not entirely sure for what. Soonyoung just has that effect on him, a bewitching spell cast over him like an invisible cloak.

“Isn’t it weird?” Soonyoung asks later, once the dishes have been moved to the sink and they themselves have relocated to the couch. A Netflix show plays in the background, though neither of them is paying attention.

"What's weird?"

“That we spent a lot of time in proximity from each other and had a million opportunity to meet, but never stumbled into the other’s path until _after_ the chance of an encounter became slim to none?”

What a wonderfully complicated way of putting it. 

“Yep,” Jihoon answers him.

Shifting his position next to Jihoon, Soonyoung’s tone is petulant when he asks, “That’s it? That’s all I get from you?”

Jihoon reaches for his hand and Soonyoung effortlessly weaves his fingers in between Jihoon’s own. In contrast to Jihoon’s slim and long ones, Soonyoung’s are a bit pudgy. But they’re warm, and they fit perfectly, and the contact brings a smile to Jihoon’s face. God, the hours he spent longing for this right here, to be able to touch Soonyoung and drown himself in his presence.

To be able to turn Soonyoung’s hand in his, kiss his fingers to steal some of the heat from his fingertips, feel the quickened pulse in the inner of his wrist.

“Do you know how stars are made?”

He frowns. “Uh… something about gas collapsing?”

“Close enough,” Jihoon squeezes his hand in reward. “Gravity pulls dust and gas together to form a massive cloud in space. Do you know what happens next?”

“No.”

“The gases get hot,” he wiggles his eyebrows suggestively, making Soonyoung laugh in earnest. “They get hotter and hotter until there’s enough energy for a nuclear fusion, and from that point on it’ll take the star about a million years to overcome the inward pull of the gravity.”

Soonyoung’s frown returns. “Jihoonie, I don’t understand.”

“I’m saying, a star takes a million years to form,” he caresses the length of Soonyoung’s thumb as he marvels at their joined hands. “You were right before. We’ve always shared the same orbit, but beautiful things take time. And I think this thing right here, it's on its way to becoming something beautiful. We just have to be patient.”

When he looks up at Soonyoung, he finds the other staring back with wide eyes, jaw slack in surprise. His grip on Jihoon’s hand tightens a fraction, as though he’s afraid Jihoon will disappear into thin air if he even thinks about letting go.

Breaking away from Jihoon’s searching eyes, Soonyoung mutters something under his breath that sounds a lot like _allergic to romance, my ass_.

Jihoon reaches for his chin, guiding Soonyoung’s gaze back to him. “What was that?”

“I said, you’re _definitely_ not allergic to romance. Which means you…” he stops, bites on his lower lip so hard that white replaces the pink plumpness where his teeth sink into it, “you lied to me,” Soonyoung finishes weakly.

There’s no unstable connection to explain away the pause in the middle of his sentences, no low bandwidth to serve as a rationalisation for the lag in response. Soonyoung’s eyes flick down to Jihoon’s mouth, then he’s hastily looking away from him, a shade of pink tinting his prominent cheekbones.

“Wait, are you shy right now?” Jihoon asks, only half curious. He sort of knows the answer. “I mean, we’ve already—”

Soonyoung’s flush creeps down to his neck.

“Please, no need to reiterate it,” he cuts Jihoon’s sentence off quickly. There’s a pout that comes with the protest and Jihoon wants nothing more but to kiss off of him.

“It’s different, on the phone, or through the screen, because—” Soonyoung stops once again, warm brown eyes meeting Jihoon’s own, tentativeness shining through them.

“I know,” he assures him that he understands, that they’re in the same boat on this matter. “Is different bad?”

Fervent shakes of Soonyoung’s head give Jihoon the answer before he even says, “No, of course not. It’s not bad.”

“I agree,” Jihoon nods in satisfaction. “There are some _really_ good things about it. Do you want to know what?”

Thankfully, Soonyoung hasn’t had enough of his pointless inquiries and still has it in him to entertain one more question from Jihoon, as rhetoric as it might be. As his index finger draws random patterns on the back of Jihoon’s hand, whorls of his fingertip lighting small sparks over Jihoon’s skin wherever he touches, Soonyoung sweetly indulges him once more.

“I do. What?”

Releasing Soonyoung's hand only to frame his face gently, Jihoon kisses him. He takes his time with it, moves his mouth against Soonyoung without any intention of deepening their exchange. Jihoon thinks he can feel the indentations Soonyoung's teeth leave on his bottom lip.

“I get to do this,” he breathes softly against Soonyoung’s mouth when he pulls away for air. The other boy shudders lightly. “And not just _think_ about doing it every waking hour of every day.”

Forgoing a verbal answer, Soonyoung simply slots his mouth over Jihoon’s again. He wraps an arm around Jihoon's middle to pull him closer, practically hauling Jihoon onto his lap. Jihoon chuckles into their kiss, amused by his eagerness; a sound which Soonyoung swallows right out of his mouth. The kiss takes a sharp turn down the sloppy alley then, but it remains all kinds of perfect.

As it turns out, Jihoon might pay back Jeonghan’s favour soon after all.

Who knew revenge is a dish best served with a side of romance?

**Author's Note:**

> happy birthday, carats’ fairy lee jihoon. <3
> 
> i honestly needed a reason to write something light hahaha. hope you had fun with this! all mistakes are mine and will hopefully be edited soon jdhfk
> 
> soonyoung's profile pictures reference images [here](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ega-C2VXkAAF2yf.jpg) and [here](https://data.whicdn.com/images/343187387/original.jpg) and [here](https://i.imgur.com/fDw7cFS.jpg)


End file.
